What socket type and how many different sockets does the AMD Athlon XP uses? I only know about Socket A. Btw what the difference between T-bred and barton?

SpaceManSpiff

09-14-2003, 05:18 AM

I thought it only uses socket A, as far as I know?

What's a Barton?

With AMD's 0.13-micron transition finally going as planned and 90nm still a 2004 item, it is no surprise that Barton is another 0.13-micron core. Replacing the short-lived Thoroughbred, Barton adds one major feature to the Athlon XP's list - a 512KB L2 cache. Other than a larger cache (and a respectively larger die), Barton is no different from Thoroughbred.

I didnt know what the difference between t-bred and barton was either, but I did a little searching. It seems that Barton is just a newer version of the athlon processors I guess.

SpaceManSpiff

09-14-2003, 05:23 AM

Since the computer savvy and probably Alucard too will most likely visit this thread, Ill ask a question of my own.

Whats the clock speed of a cpu mean?

like when it says Athlon XP 2500, but then it says clock speed of 1.83 GHz?

Alucard

09-14-2003, 06:53 AM

w00t. Just like what spaceman said. Barton is pretty much the new version. Little difference. They're making another one for those over 3gig, whatever the name was. I usually dont pay attention to that part because its just a label and little else.

The 1.83 thing you're seeing is what that specific XP chip performs if it were a Pentium 4 instead. So a XP 2.5 is the same as a P4 1.8gig. Ofcoiurse now you're asking why the number difference. If you compare an XP 2.5 and a P4 1.8 in price, the XP is waaaaay cheaper and performs the same <and better in other things like documents and imaging and blahblah>. More marketting really. If someone knows a bit more and somehow my brain got screwed up along the way, feel free to come and slap me upside the head with the real story.

SpaceManSpiff

09-14-2003, 07:22 AM

I thought that the athlon processors run better than the pentiums? At least AMD says so.

Since the beginning of the PC indistry Intel has pretty much been the standard. As stiff the competition is today, we still measure performance in comparison to intel processors.

A AMD XP2500 is the same as a Pentium 1800 in clockspeed only. However due to the way the AMD cpu is optimised in terms of performance in specific functions for your pc, it PERFORMS like a Pentium 2500, which is why its given the XP2500 name so people more or less know what kind of performance they are buying with their CPU. So yes, AMD makes better use of clockspeed than Intel, and in most functions that matter, it outperforms it.

SpaceManSpiff

09-15-2003, 12:07 AM

How does the amount of cache on a processor effect its performance?...what does it do?

And which is better:

Athlon XP 2700+ with 256k cache, 333 MHz FSB, T-bred. OR

Athlon XP 2500+ with 512k cache, 333 MHz FSB, Barton.

How do they compare?

sin75

09-15-2003, 12:26 AM

Thanks for the replies.
Another question I want to ask is the 64bit AMD processor. I heard about "bit" since the megadrive days but until today I still don't understand what it means. In performance, what is the most noticeable visual improvement I should expect(compared to 32bit cpus)?

Alucard

09-15-2003, 08:44 AM

hmm...64bit... I'll tell you once I see a game that actually supports this. :D

spiff, the 2700 is more powerful ofcourse. They're calling all the new AMD chips Barton now. Thunderbird was the older generation.

SpaceManSpiff

09-15-2003, 12:26 PM

What does the cache do?

Alucard

09-15-2003, 12:32 PM

The extra cache lets it store more instructions or something. My knowledge of this part went out the window since my brain needed to make room for something. It does it at random. I forget things. I just know L2 cache means better. And better is all I need to know as there isn't another version after L2. Sorry I couldn't help! Just think 'faster. You'll be fine then.